People with higher blood pressure may respond inappropriately to emotions in other people.

Researchers led by psychology professor James A. McCubbin of Clemson University found a link between hypertension with a person's ability to recognize emotional content in faces and text passages.

In the published report "Cardiovascular-Emotional Dampening: The Relationship Between Blood Pressure and Recognition of Emotion," McCubbin reported that hypertensive people have what is known as "emotional dampening" which may reduce their ability to recognize angry, sad or happy faces.

"It's like living in a world of email without smiley faces," McCubbin said, adding that people putting smiley faces in emails to show when they are just kidding, otherwise some there can be some misterpretations.

McCubbin said the link between dampening of emotions and blood pressure is believed to be involved in the development of hypertension and risk for coronary heart disease, including disorders of emotion regulation, such as bipolar disorders and depression.

"If you have emotional dampening, you may distrust others because you cannot read emotional meaning in their face or their verbal communications," he said.

"You may even take more risks because you cannot fully appraise threats in the environment."

Problems in maintaining close personal relationships may be the result of emotional dampening due to hypertension. Knowing the symptoms and other manifestations of the disease may help in these situations.

According to emedicinehealth.com, high blood pressure usually causes no symptoms, that is why high blood pressure often is labeled "the silent killer." People who have high blood pressure typically don't know it until their blood pressure is measured.

The website said a person with hypertension may have the following symptoms: headache, dizziness, blurred vision, nausea and vomiting, and shortness of breath.

Damage to body organs are also caused by high blood pressure and may cause heart attack, heart failure, stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), kidney failure, eye damage with progressive vision loss, peripheral arterial disease causing leg pain with walking (claudication), and aneurysms.

McCubbin's study, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging, both parts of the National Institutes of Health.